Users have more and more computing devices today. Their data, profile settings and applications are spread across a large number of computing devices: Work PC, Home PC, PDA, Tablet PC, shared PC (cybercafe, university, etc.). They have a hard time keeping control of their information. This is because of such factors as:    The sheer multiplicity of computing devices creates great confusion,    Data is scattered among various devices with difficult synchronization,    Total cost of ownership is increased.
In this context, the PC has become a commodity. It is very easy to access a PC whether at work, home, a friend's place, and even as shared resources at a cybercafe, an airline lounge, etc. The USB port is now available on pretty much all computers. Most commodity operating systems include USB drivers by default. It is now easy to have a portable mass storage device, carry it around and plug into any machine using the USB port (or another connection). Plug and play portable mass storage devices are now a reality.
As the complexity grows, there are a number of possible answers to the question “how do I manage my data across all my computing devices?”    2-way data synchronization software such as those developed by Pumatech    use of a removable storage device such as those manufactured by Iomega, DiskOnkey, etc,    storage of data on a centralized server such as Xdrive or the Microsoft .Net My Services initiative,    remote access to main computer using tools such as GoToMyPC or Symantec PcAnywhere,
But these existing solutions do not offer a comprehensive and complete solution to user's data management. This is because the existing solutions are based on 2-way synchronization software. These solutions are focused on specific data types and are designed to synchronize that data between a PDA (like a Palm) and a PC's PIM (personal information manager) application. The realm of possibilities is somewhat limited. For example, using Palm's HotSynch manager, you will be able to only synchronize data between the Palm Desktop application on your PC and your Palm handheld device. You will not be able to act on Microsoft Word documents.
Another set of existing solutions is based on removable storage. These solutions are hardware-only. The manufacturer delivers a hardware device with the appropriate device drivers so that the operating system recognizes it. The device appears as a separate disk drive within the commodity operating system. To use these devices, a user will need to manually copy files from the hard drive to the device. There is no complete software solution allowing people to efficiently manage their data, profile settings and applications. The device is purely hardware and everything needs to be done by hand by the user.
Still another set of solutions are based on remote storage. In the solutions based on remote storage, two types of problems appear. The first is a privacy issue. That is, as data is stored on a remote storage space, the solution raises many privacy issues. The user will have to trust a third party to host his information on its servers. Privacy is a major issue and consumers are still waiting for a solution that will make them feel comfortable in their online interactions: 54% because the site requires it 43% because they don't want to be solicited 30%. Because they do not trust the site 22% to save time 17% to get personalized services.
This is related to the issue of registering on websites, and why many online users do not register on websites. It appears that consumers are waiting for a solution that will make them feel comfortable in their online interactions and let them reap the full benefits of online registration and centralized data sources Because users have no control how their personal information is saved and shared by vendors, consumers aren't ready to trust online centralized information services in exchange for ease of use. Second, these solutions require remote network access to the storage space and that raises a bandwidth issue. Bandwidth is a real problem: the comparison of Moore's law for CPU, storage and bandwidth shows that the growth of CPU power and storage outrank that of bandwidth in a great way.
The last mile connection to the household is a real bottleneck for network access. Bandwidth growth rates are far below those of CPU and storage capacities. Furthermore, even with high speed network access, download times for large files remain still much greater than local storage device access times—network data transfer can not compete with physical connections for large files: Today, for example, presentation files can grow over 10 MB and Outlook files will be over 100 MB. Transfer time from a centralized server is painful and inconvenient. Note: Elapsed times are for download connections. Upload data transfer rates are usually much lower than download transfer rates. Even with a large bandwidth access, the gap to access a 10 MB file stored on physical device or on a remote server is considerable. Even with important bandwidth access, network data transfer is not very efficient and can not compete with physical connections for large files.
Finally, penetration of high-speed network access is still very low. Only a small portion of Internet connections is high speed today. At current rates, less than 30% of US households will have high speed Internet connection by the year 2005. And this will be the most advanced market worldwide. ADSL and cable connections are still early adaptor markets.
Remote access has other problems. First there are bandwidth issues similar to the problems outlined just above about centralized storage spaces. In addition, the main computer should always be accessible: either switched on or all of its contents cached. Both possibilities are inconvenient and economically inefficient.
For any user, solving those headaches becomes a priority. They see the real value in the data, not where or how it is accessed. They want to read their email, work on the latest version of their presentation, write a memo or file their expense report. It is important for users to always be able to work on their data using the software they are accustomed to